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Jurupa Hills High School, top, celebrates a win as Citrus Valley High School's Taylor Babbitt makes her way back to the dugout after striking out during the Division 5 softball championship game on Saturday, May 31, 2014 at Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine, Ca. (Photo by Micah Escamilla/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)

Citrus Valley went further than expected this season and Jurupa Hills proved to be the better team.

“Look, we’re OK,” Finazzo said. “And it’s really an honor to just be here. The girls worked hard and it showed. To have so many new girls on the team and for the team to come together like this, that is great in itself. Either way, we feel like we are winners.”

It was the third trip to the CIF title game for the Blackhawks. Citrus Valley lost 6-5 to Downey Calvary Chapel in its first bid three years ago. The Blackhawks won their first CIF title last season, 5-2 over Kern Valley.

Citrus Valley now heads to the Citrus Belt League. where it will join neighboring schools Redlands and Redlands East Valley.

“Now that this is done, it’s like a sigh of relief,” Finazzo said. “Now we can refocus on that. We’ve already played a lot of the local teams in friendlies already. We are looking forward to it.”

Citrus Valley leaves the Mountain Valley League as a three-time MVL champion.

“We feel like we’ve been ready,” Finazzo said. “Jurupa Hills has been our big challenge. So we feel we are ready.”

It was Citrus Valley’s fourth straight loss to Jurupa Hills. And it was yet another stellar performance by Spartans pitcher Natalie Calderas.

“She got better every time we saw her,” Finazzo said. “We expected her to be on and she was.”

Calderas nearly no-hit Citrus Valley, giving up two hits in the top of the seventh.

“We wanted to make some adjustments,” Finazzo said. “We wanted to be a little more scrappy with the ball, get more balls on the ground. But she was putting something on the spin that was making it really tough for us.”

Citrus Valley didn’t get anyone on base until the sixth inning, and that was because of an error. In the seventh, the Blackhawks put runners on with a base hits by Jackie Chairez and Zoe Richard.

Calderas ended up with 11 strikeouts.

“She pitched a great game,” Finazzo said.

It wasn’t a bad outing for Citrus Valley pitcher Taylor Troost, but it only took a couple innings before Jurupa Hills batters figured her out.

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Troost relinquished the four runs and was replaced by Alyssa Hernandez late in the fourth.

“It’s not fun,’ said Troost, who ended the season with a 14-4 record. She held Jurupa Hills hitless for the first two innings.

Hernandez ended up giving up two hits and no runs in her two innings of work.

“I knew going in that they were good hitters,” Hernandez said. “I knew I needed to be on top of my game. I knew I had the defense. So I just tried my hardest.”